Birdsville to Longreach

TUESDAY, 7 JUNE 2016

Birdsville sunset

Sunset at the airport

At least he has a drink while he is waiting!

Stonehenge

Bull in Longreach

Yesterday (we were still in Birdsville) we had breakfast at the Birdsville Bakery (recommended by our friendly receptionist as opposed to the hotel’s offerings), watched a tour group depart – they had flown in from Shepparton the previous night at 5.00 pm, had dinner, slept, had breakfast and left at 8.00 am for the return flight!  The skies were very overcast as we left for the drive back to Windorah and somehow the drive didn’t seem anywhere near as long.  We stopped at the turn-off for lunch and Himself parked in front of a big sign informing us of all the snakes that lived in the region!  Of the sixteen snakes listed, three were non-venomous, four were venomous and the remaining nine were extremely venomous!  We had to be aware of western taipans, death adders, mulgas, browns, eastern browns and other nasty types.  Needless to say, lunch was eaten in the car, although the millions of friendly flies were probably more hazardous to our health than the snakes.

A large group of charity Bush Bash vehicles descended on Windorah for the night, as well as a large number of motorcycles heading west to the Finke Desert Race.  The Bash vehicles took over the recreation ground and boosted the takings of the service station and hotel.  They headed for Winton this morning and we saw the last of them at Jundah.

The road to Jundah was fairly new and in very good condition, nearly wide enough for two vehicles to pass, and continued like this as far as Stonehenge.  It was here that we met up with another group of Bash vehicles and their owners who were enjoying morning “tea” at 10.30 am at the local hotel.  The road north from Stonehenge to Longreach deteriorated quickly to a very rough single lane bitumen surface with broken edges, very rough gravel shoulders are extremely deep, muddy ruts formed after the recent rains.  It was also along this stretch of road that we met the remainder of this Bash group – most were considerate as we pulled over onto the rough shoulders but there was the odd driver who was less so.  We have now driven from Windorah to Longreach and will have no need to ever drive it again!

We are staying in the “big smoke” of Longreach for four nights (so nice to have communication again) and are at the immense Longreach Tourist Park.  A week or so ago, tractors had to be used to haul caravans out of the muddy sites after the rains and today we were allocated a site which, although dry, was extremely churned up.  Another site was allocated on our request, thank goodness.  We are also now in the tropics and the weather had warmed up dramatically – time to change over the wardrobe.